Last April Fools' Day, publishers from Time Inc. to the Washington Post Company sent fast-growing startup Zite an aggressive cease-and-desist letter. The publishers weren't joking, accusing Zite's app, a personalized news reader for the iPad and iPhone, of copyright infringement and calling it "plainly unlawful."

In this extended version of the conversation from our latest issue, we chat with Mark Johnson, the CEO of Zite. "Part of the problem with the news today and news discovery," he tells us, "is we've been so satisfied with good enough for so long that we haven't opened our eyes to the possibility of what news discovery can be."